Ciao a tutti,

I've taken two semesters of Italian in school. Then it got difficult, and I put off taking the third course for a while. I'm going to take it this upcoming semester, and this program is really helping me review everything I learned back then. Thanks!

My question is, I understand why we used passato prossimo for "Non ho capito/I didn't understand," but why use "Ho capito adesso" if we are talking about finally understanding now? Would "Ah! Capisco adesso" be incorrect?

Thanks,

Michael

Hi Michael,
While 90% of the time I'm learning Spanish, I am also working on learning the basics in Italian, Japanese, and German. I found your post question interesting, so I did some research. According to Google, "Ho capito adesso" translates as "I get it now" versus "I understand now" (using "Capisco adesso"). My understanding is that you could use either to communicate to whoever you're speaking to that you know something now that you didn't earlier. I hope this helps!

Laura 

Hi daytripper90,

KelllaurBailar is right. Ho capito adesso and Ah! Capisco adesso are synonyms, and they are both right.
However, Ah! Adesso capisco (along with Adesso ho capito) sounds more natural to my ear in this kind of situation. The examples where adesso is the last element have a very subtle change of meaning, because it's as if you were kind of impatient to understand what the other is trying to say, or at least this is how I get it and use everyday. This is because there is more emphasis (accent) on the last word (now).
The sentences have the same meaning irrespective of present or present perfect tense.

Hope I helped!

Thanks Laura and Lucia, that definitely clears things up.

Hey Michael, 
No problem! :)
Just a side note, you would probably love Google Translate's site as well. The voice recording part is really picky, but it's great. Since I started experimenting on there, everything about my Spanish has improved immensely.

Laura